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Two worlds, one moment

Do you ever wonder if someone else somewhere else in the world is doing exactly the same thing at thát very same moment? Do you ever ask yourself if you are the only one feeling the way you do right now? Out of curiosity, to seek guidance or a pure romantic thought. How would that other world look like? Tworlds helps you find out!

How it works

In a landscape of social media where millions of people are online connected with each other in many and various ways, we feel the need to return to the essence and take the initial momentum as the starting point. Not only a thought or feeling become connected, but the visual moment capturing it all.

With Tworlds you take a photo which immediately is coupled with a corresponding similar moment at a random spot somewhere else on this globe. These two images are anonymous placed together, and only contain the two place names. Then, the newly combined image, we bombed this the tworld, can be viewed, saved and shared via email or social media.

Instagram

To keep tworlds honest it is not possible to use a photo from your library or by editing. This puts ‘make-nicer-apps' like Instagram and other self-marketing filters out of the game and makes that only real and unpolished moments from our daily lives - the images that self-censorship on the social networks do not survive - can be compared as equals. That’s why it also isn’t possible to zoom in to obtain the most realistic human eyeshot.

Compare if you dare

Almost half the Facebook, Twitter en Instagram users are so called voyeurs. They spend more time looking at profiles of others then updating their own. Secretly we all behave like this; comparing your own life with those of others. But this is momentary, because it’s a one way direction. There is no trigger to look more close, actually it’s only about yourself.

Tworlds responds to the current visual culture where is communicated more and more through just an image as a meaningful message. Tworlds slows this contemporary and continuous stream of images, so that the image does not just get created and shared, but assesses and compared with your own life. Tworlds ignores the narcissism of just posting about yourself or the popular selfie. Instead Tworlds allows you to compare your life with another and become truly vulnerable and out of control.

Find your other you

Tworlds will be used for different reasons. For some, tworlds will be a social competition, a game. Who’s party is more fun? Who’s baby is cuter? Who’s got the nicer view while drinking a coffee?
But tworlds also offers help and understanding by finding the like-minded. Who in this world is also feeling sad or angry right now? Who also can’t sleep? It’s nice that when you’re feeling alone tworlds shows you are not the only one.

Discover the unknown

For whatever reason you use tworlds, there arises an experience between you and a complete random stranger somewhere else on this planet. This shared moment will bring you in contact with a huge variety of unknown persons, countries, religions and cultures. Tworlds wants to breakthrough the sociographic bubble of our curated (online) environment. The anti-social aspect, the anonymity and comparison, lowers the threshold having to ‘Like’ or to ‘Follow’ and challenges us to gift each other pictures of our every day lives - unpolished glimpses into someone else’s reality.

Because the image is placed next to your own you will compare automatically, you look more consciously, you are slowed down and forced to contemplation and reflection. You will even look at to your own picture from a new perspective. Because there is only image, your imagination gets stimulated to wonder about the (social) context and emphasize with the other life. You are encouraged to look beyond the differences and similarities, and ponder why these are differences and similarities. Tworlds let’s you conscious unconsciously discover other cultures without prejudice while fostering harmony and understanding.

Now

Tworlds connects the world in a contradictional manner, because it is through anonymity and comparison. Tworlds wants to contribute to an overall sense of community by growing a little more mutual understanding and respect for the unknown and for each other. We discover that we do not have to be afraid of each other and will behave more social in real life.

The shared moment, the tworld, is a window to the world. A glimpse of how we all live in the now.